What do new speakers have over old speakers?

Question

I keep hearing people talk about superior "new speaker technology." But this has me confused.

In the A/V world, I can think of many instances of superior new technology. For example, a new HD TV is far superior to what was being sold just a few years ago. A 1080P Blu-ray player is far superior to an old technology 480P DVD player. A new home theater receiver with the latest sound codecs and HDMI inputs has far superior technology to what was being sold a few years ago. And while I'm no expert on this subject, some might even say modern tube amps are superior to the old ones. An example being the original dynaco ST-70 vs one of the new kits. These are just a few examples that I can think of. Granted, the biggest improvements have come from the video part of the A/V equation.

But still, how is "new speaker technology" significantly superior to old speaker technology? I am stumped on this one.

I'm not trying to start a fight here. I'm just looking for some enlightment before I drop thousands on a new speaker system. Thanks!

Answer 1

Excellent Question La Pistola. In reference to speaker technology, I would agree there are some amazingly well designed speakers of the past that still are highly regarded and respected even to this day.



There are many manufactures that used to build some incredible speakers in their day, and now have actually gone backwards, cheapened their products, ether because they were bought out for their name, now to sell to the masses, or they don't have the design engineers who know what good sound is really about. Kef for example used to make some great speakers in the 80's now they are very ordinary, same with Infinity and Celestion.



But I do think there have been some areas of improvements made when these technologies are utilized properly. Speaker enclosures have made huge improvements in the form of materials available and to address the coloration's that speaker enclosures create. Drivers, capacitors, resistors, cross-over designs, and test equipment, have all made some significant improvements, again if utilized properly.



I think the biggest thing holding many of the current speaker designs back is these manufactures being able to listen properly and understand and know the fine line of musicality and detail.



Pushing the limits in getting the most detail is great but musicality is even more important, and I hear many speakers that are very detailed but lack musicality.



Another really good question that someone should ask is about music playback and how we listen to music improved ? In this regard it is clearly a NO.



With the introduction of digital in the 1980's and now with MP3's and digital downloads, we are going clearly backwards in the way most people listen to music. Now in high end audio there has been some large improvements in digital music and we are going to see even more high resolution digital music download sites coming online, "But" analog records are still clearly superior form of listening to music. With a high quality turntable setup, a well recorded analog record will provide a much more involving and musical experience. So for many who are really wanting to get the highest level of musical enjoyment from their music are still listening to records. So in that way we have not made improvements but have gone seriously backwards.



Has equipment improved ? again in some ways with better parts, deeper understanding of the technology behind designing better equipment yes, "but" again there are still some older designs that still hold up today and are very well respected.



Personally I am a huge vacuum tube and analog record fan and believe that these forms of music playback still provide the most involving experience still available to this day. I am truly elated and encouraged when I see yet another person discover the joys of listening to records.



Kevin

40 years high end audio video specialist

Answer 2

I was all set to give that other guy a thumbs up until I read "able to take digital signals" and I had to stop reading. A digital signal is a series of 1s and 0s. You can not run a digital signal into a speaker. That's just retarded. There isn't necessarily much improvement over old speaker technology. It's all a give and take. You gain power handing these days over old stuff, but old stuff was far more efficient, so it's an even trade off except you have to have a beefier electrical system to produce the big watts these days. I firmly believe that all came about as an advertisement pitch. To sell amps, they started producing mroe power. In order to keep up with that, speakers had to handle more power, which means they had to be less efficient. so and and so forth. There may be some new advancements in materials, but to the average listening, they're probably not going to be able to tell the difference. So, "new speaker technology" is just a way to repackage old sh!t ... again ... in my opinion. If you did a side by side comparison with equivelant products from 10 years ago to today, I doubt you could tell a difference. What you do get with new gear is a new warranty. lol. So maybe you want to take that into consideration.

Answer 3

The main difference has been in tweeter technology, Newer materials and better testing methods have

Improved tweeter out put lowering distortion and increasing linearity and made better tweeters more affordable, new materials for woofers and mid range drivers have also brought better response at least theoretically some people will say that a paper cone mid range and woofer still sounds better...also just more is known as to what makes a speaker sound good so computer modeling has become more available making the process easier...One of the reasons that speakers are not as good as they should be today is that the better brands have been bought out by corporations, which design speakers to achieve certain market share and price levels, so allot of times today the parameters of a speaker are decided more by the accounting department as opposed to inspired designers, even though the process is easier there is not the heart and sole there once was....so your going to find the newest highest tec drivers on the most expensive models only and then there is a trikle down effect that takes place over time to lower priced models...its all pretty well calculated to achive market share....The best speakers are going to be ones in which you choose your own drivers and build your own speakers....

Answer 4

As long as you are talking about traditional cone-driver speakers in a wood/wood-substitute cabinet - the changes are small.



I suspect 'new speaker technology' has 2 parts:



* Efficiency

* Better enclosure materials



Ten to fifteen years ago audiophiles still lusted after amps that output 130-150 watts per channel and audiophile grade speakers needed this to squeeze out details.



But with AV receivers needing 5 or 7 amps, then the pressure to include Networking, HDMI, iPod, Sat Radio, better on-screen displays, auto-calibration, etc., the receiver makers have had to cut corners on the amp circuits to add in the bells and whistles.



This means - the speakers needed to do more with less power. They had to be more efficient so the drivers have been made to work with less power so they sound good with more modest amplification.



Enclosures:



Sound actually bounces around inside the speaker cabinet and the better speaker designers have 'secret cookie recipes' where they include volume, stiffness and bracing inside the cabinet to take advantage of this.

You dont want sound bouncing too much or when the energy comes out - it distorts the direct sound from the drivers. They have come up with some new composite materials and resins to make speaker cabinets stiffer which reduces distortion and side and backs of speakers from creating reflected sounds.



The third issue: After many years of use - older speakers soften up mechanically. While this might be good for Classical or Jazz type of music, it may also soften hard edges of sound that come with modern action and adventure movies. So a 'newer' speaker may sound better than a 2005 era speaker simply because .. it is newer.

Answer 5

You need to compare similar level speakers over the years. I can say that my 2007-2010 Infinity Beta speakers beat the snot out of the old 1978 vintage but similar level Infinitys I had.



Things such as materials used in the drivers, has improved over the years and decades. Plus, more modern ones are often video shielded, so that they can be used near to a TV.

Answer 6

Trust your ears.